Program details and sample curriculum

The Food and Health Systems Economics major brings together economics expertise from both the food and the health system to prepare students for fulfilling careers in areas as diverse as public health to nutrition economics.

Students in this major learn about animal and crop production, food processing, nutrition, as well as health as an integrated system. Students will graduate prepared to address the complex and interrelated issues that link food and health, from obesity issues to unexpected pandemics.

Kayla Dao ‘27

“I chose my major along with a minor in Global Food Security and Health, because my experience as a first-generation student from a Vietnamese immigrant family showed me how deeply food, health, and opportunity are connected. I want to use my education to make food systems more sustainable and equitable, as I’ve seen how it directly affects myself and those around me.”

Examples of core and major requirement classes

• Economics of Health Care: Effects of medical care on health; cost and production of medical care; demand for medical care and its financing; structure of the health care industry; reorganization for efficiency.
• Analytical Methods in Applied Economics: Quantitative methods used in applied empirical economic analysis, including simple and multiple regression, estimation and application of elasticity, decision analysis, economic simulations, linear programming, and risk analysis. Analysis using spreadsheets stressed.
• Food and Health Economics: Overview of nutrition, nutrition recommendations, and implications for economically based decisions. Individual and household food consumption and health production models. Farm to consumer market linkage models with nutrition and health implications. Effectiveness of food and nutrition interventions and policies.
• World Crops: Food and Culture: How to feed the world in 2050, world crops, primary regions of production, factors that determine where they are grown, economic importance, and use in the human diet. Linkage between food and culture, recipe preparation, and their role in defining who we are, where we come from, and what we have experienced along the way. 

Sample curriculum

TOTAL Credits = 120 credits 
Undergraduate Catalog Course Descriptions
Individual programs depend on transfer credits, if applicable